


Hawaii

by mldrgrl



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Angst Lite, F/M, car games
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:26:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25915825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mldrgrl/pseuds/mldrgrl
Summary: Requested story: Mulder and Scully are often on road trips, what do they do to pass the time?
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Comments: 15
Kudos: 76





	Hawaii

They come to an unspoken agreement quite early in the partnership that Mulder drives and Scully navigates. First and foremost, Mulder is terrible with maps, both folding and reading, mostly due to a lack of patience. Secondarily, before Scully has even had her morning cup of coffee, Mulder usually knows all the details of their next case backwards and forwards and she often needs the time to catch up as they make their way from one destination to another.

Journeys are often long and highways are particularly boring. It’s Scully that inadvertently starts the game and Mulder who continues it. Eventually, they both contribute to the elaborate rules that follow, year after year.

“Hawaii,” Scully murmurs one day from the passenger seat. “Amazing.”

“Hm?” Mulder responds. “You want to go to Hawaii?”

“No. She points up ahead to the car in front of them. “When we were kids we used to play the license plate game. You know, trying to get all 50 states before someone else. Hawaii was always like the holy grail. Rarely seen on the mainland. I haven’t thought about it in years, but here’s one in Kansas, of all places.”

“Sam and I used to play punch buggy.”

“That was banned in our car after a lot of bruising and tears.”

“How long do you have to get all the states? Does it just keep going until someone reaches 50?”

“Usually it was sort of a summer vacation game. We’d make a list and whoever had the most before school started was the winner.”

“So, Hawaii isn’t worth more points or anything?”

“No, but always the one everyone wanted.”

“Well, you’re already winning then.”

By the end of the case, Mulder has racked up Nebraska, Wyoming, and Illinois. Kansas is taken off the table since they’re in Kansas and their rental car with its Arizona plates doesn’t count either.

Scully wins the first year, 38 states to Mulder’s 33.

The second year is not off to a good start. The score is 4 to 2, Scully, before they’re reassigned and separated. And then she’s gone. Mulder keeps the list they’d started in the glove compartment of his car, but doesn’t add to it. He tells himself that if he finds Hawaii, it’s a good sign. He doesn’t, but Scully is returned and all is right with the world. She finds the list in his car one day and they begin again, like nothing ever happened. She wins that year too, 17 to 15. No one gets Hawaii.

Mulder wins the third year, Scully regains her title the fourth. They manage to tie in the fifth year. The game comes to a screeching halt in the sixth year and the list disappears. They’re barely speaking on a good day though, and games are the last thing on their minds. Once their relationship gets back on track, and then really takes off in a new way, the game is renewed with vigor. And then he’s gone and Scully keeps the list in her glove compartment. He had been winning, 22 to 19. She tells herself if she finds Hawaii, it’s a good sign. Instead, she finds Mulder’s lifeless body in the woods and she pastes the list in a scrapbook for the baby one day.

In true Mulder fashion, he’s resurrected and returned to her, but things are not the same. It’s not quite as bad as their sixth year, but lacks the joy of the seventh. There are no car trips and no games to play. And then he’s gone again.

She spends her time in the car talking to the baby. Telling him stories about his father or singing him to sleep with off-key lullabies. She thinks that one day, maybe, they’ll be together again, looking for Hawaii on summer vacations, but the baby is gone before his first word.

They’ve traveled hundreds if not thousands of miles together, Scully and Mulder. Nine years later, they still have an unspoken agreement that Mulder drives and Scully navigates. Their next destination is selected at random and at whim and some days they forget where they are.

“Hey,” Mulder says, reaching across the seats to grab Scully’s hand. “Hawaii.”

“Hm? You want to go to Hawaii?”

“No, look.” He nods his head to the car that’s passing on their right. “The only other time we’ve ever found Hawaii was that first year when you started the license plate game. And now here it is, in the middle of...are we still in Utah?”

Scully opens the glove compartment box and finds a napkin. She writes Mulder’s name and Hawaii on it. They just keep going. 

The End


End file.
